Blair urged to protect our children from abductors
Posted by Ellee on Sep 8, 2006 in Uncategorized | 13 comments
I know Tony Blair has a lot on his mind at the moment, but I hope he makes time soon to discuss child snatchers with John Reid – and makes it a top priority.
Amazingly, strangers who abduct or try to snatch children are not placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register and the York Press has actively been campaiging for the law to be changed on this.
Blair visited York this week and expressed “sympathy” towards the campaign.
Julian Sturdy, who is contesting the new York Outer seat, is urging 
Blair to keep his word and come back with an answer by the autumn.
There can only be one answer. Blair is a father and can surely see that this legal loophole needs to be plugged immediately. A pity it wasn’t included in the first place in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which is now under review.
The campaign has the full backing of Sara Payne whose daughter was abducted and brutally murdered. Each year in England and Wales, between 5 – 9 children are abducted and killed. Angry mother June Hick is desperate for a change too after the attempted abduction of her daughter.
I do not understand why we rely on newspapers to push for these laws to protect our children when the Government has its own highly paid legal team.
And why does does the Home Office send its Minister Gerry Sutcliffe to America to review the Sexual Offences Act 2003 when we surely have all the answers here, as well as concern and recommendations raised by our own judges?
I’ve just signed the York Press’s petition on this, if you wish to as well, here is the link.
It must be said that myturf is sophisticated enough to detect and prevent on-line bullying.
Ellee – internet controls are not the solution. Our children must be protected whilst they use the internet and identity verification is a good option. Praguetory has identified one such service (my turf) which is doing something to provide our kids with a safe place to “chat”. But how do you prevent cyber-bullying?
Jean-Luc raises concerns shared by all parents so having sites properly verify their members will help identify such perpetrators or better still keep them out.
Jean-Luc, it is terrying to think what some evil people are doing on the internet. I would also like to see action taken on this, but the internet is hard to control.
It is shocking that children are not protected from being ‘groomed’ over the internet by paedophiles. This is the fault of both the government and those that run the sites.
John, I felt the same way about Blair’s comment, I’m sure Julian will not let this slide, it’s such an important topic.
NMOTB, I can only sympathise with the situation you have in SA, it must be so terrible.
I got chills when I read that. That is one of my biggest fears. It is a everyday occurance here by us, if only it were 5- 9 a year! There are children that go missing and get murdered here on a daily basis, it is very sad and heartbreaking!
Your comment, “Blair visited York this week and expressed “sympathyâ€? towards the campaign.” does not sound too encouraging to me. This guy rarely delivers on a clear pledge, so such a luke warm response is worrying.
I’ve signed the petition so lets hope that works.
Why not appeal to the Sun or NOTW instead. They tend to have more say in criminal policy than Blair. One headline = One policy under this government.
I see. Thanks for clarifying. I have just finished reading through the other links you kindly provided. I will now check out the link to the petition.
Praguetory, thank you for the link, which also raises another important issue. I think settings can be made on computers to prevent access to questionable sites, but this message needs to be made loud and clear to parents.
Bel, the kind of child snatching I am referring is that which is sexually motivated, rather than the woman who has lost a child and is feeling traumatised. These people should be kept on a register and monitored to help protect our young people, at the moment this does not happen.
Hi Ellee, thank you for highlighting this important area.
I haven’t
I wonder, though, looking at this from a strictly technical point of view, a stranger who snatches a child is not prima facie a sex offender. We are assuming here that every stranger who snatches a child does so for sexual reasons. It is a fair assumption, but I can see why the law is as it is.
Maybe better to have a register for people who have committed crimes against children, generally? We could still have the sex offenders register in addition to that, but that’s not ideal, as more than one register is likely to confuse.
Ellie, on the subject of child protection, you may be interested to check out
http://www.my-turf.com/
This government has done nothing to protect kids who are on-line. The above UK project can not get UK government funding. Please let me know if you want to know more.
In my country, Indonesia, the national commitee of childrem protection is also trying its best to get children protected from abductors.
Hope it’ll work out well, there in your country.
BTW, thanks for visiting my blog. I feel totally honored.